Abstract

Antony Lerman traces his five-decade personal and political journey from idealistic socialist Zionist to controversial critic of Israel's aggression towards the Palestinians. As head of an influential UK Jewish think tank, he operated at the highest levels of international Jewish political and intellectual life.

He recalls his 1960s Zionist activism, two years spent on kibbutz and service in the IDF, followed by the gradual onset of doubts about Israel on returning to England. Assailed for his growing public criticism of Israeli policy and Zionism, he details his ostracism by the Jewish establishment.

With a sharp insider's critique, Lerman presents a powerful, human rights-based argument about how a just peace can be achieved.
'Lerman's journey from fervent Zionist to thoughtful critic of Zionism is fascinating enough. But this rich and compelling account also charts his sustained vilification and shows how extensively bigotry has replaced reason in the Middle East debate'
Anne Karpf, sociologist, journalist and author of The War After: Living With the Holocaust (1996)
'An honest and moving account of how Antony Lerman - like so many Jewish liberals of his generation - fell in and out of love with the Zionist dream as translated into Israeli reality'
Rabbi David J. Goldberg, author of This Is Not the Way: Jews, Judaism and Israel (2012)
'In this very courageous, personal yet intellectual exposé, Antony Lerman, who, unlike many of his peers, refused to cross the red lines into the ideological territory of ethnocentric particularism, explores his journey to and from Zionism'
Avraham Burg, former Speaker of the Israeli Knesset and author of The Holocaust is Over: We Must Rise From its Ashes (2008)